Tuesday, September 20, 2011

They leisurely walked down the stairs in silence. Both were mumbling and keeping their gaze low. They walked in the same pace and manner to the next level down. The silence was suddenly disrupted by a loud groan.

"Aishee!" Hwang Bo stopped walking. "Shillang.." she whined, stamping her feet at the same time. "I counted wrongly again. I don't know whether this is 26 or 28." She pouted, looking at Hyun Joong's direction for help.

Hyun Joong had stopped walking too. He briefly stared at his shoes before tilting his chin to look at Hwang Bo. "32," he said. The cute expression he wanted to see badly. He saw it just now. Not a full pledged cute expression. It was not even an intended cute expression from Hwang Bo. He doubted she herself realized she looked cute when she threw tantrum such as that. He would take that as a cute expression. Hyun Joong smiled.

"32? Why isn't it 26 or 28?" she asked, not satisfied with the answer.

"This is the second time you counted wrongly," he replied, giving her a sharp glare. "I don't want to go back upstairs and start recounting again. I counted 32 so you must count 32 too." His answer was very firm. So was his tone.

It left Hwang Bo with no choice but to nod her head, agreeing with him. "I understand," she said softly. Although she was unwilling to go with his answer, she was also unwilling to climb up the stairs again to start recounting. She slowly followed Hyun Joong going down the stairs, counting from 33 as she went down one step.

"Aishee.." It was Hyun Joong who sighed this time. "What will you do if I'm not around?" he asked, sounding disappointed with Hwang Bo. He shook his head to emphasize how frustrated he was with her.

Hwang Bo laughed out loud, hitting Hyun Joong on his arm. "It was you who suggested we took the stairs and bet on who'll count the number of stairs right! Why wasn't it a good idea when I suggested betting on taking the stairs? But when you suggested it, we have to do it?" Although she tried hard to sound annoyed, she could not suppress her chuckle. Most of the times, she did not know what to do with him. He annoyed her when he made her enjoyed being with him. Yet she enjoyed being with him. But at the same time, he annoyed her. "I don't know what to do with you," she told him her thought out loud.

Hyun Joong smiled. "Yet you like being with me," he told her, as if he could read her mind.

That almost made Hwang Bo lost her counting again. He knew her so well that she sometimes almost believed he was her destined soul mate. She shook her head to get rid of the ridiculous thought out of her head. Yet, although she ruled it as ridiculous, she wondered why they kept calling each other Buin and Shillang when filming had wrapped up an hour earlier?

He glanced sideways, trying to observe Hwang Bo's expression. He suggested the game to get time alone with her off camera, away from everyone. Just Hwang Bo and him. Only a silly person would take the stairs going down from fifth floor when the elevator was working fine. He was indeed silly. No, he was not silly. He was crazy. Out of his mind. Insane. It was all Hwang Bo's doing. "Buin, do you remember when you asked me whether there's anything that I'm displeased with you?" he asked, carefully constructing his sentence.

"43. Hmm.. What about it?" She glanced at him, biting her lower lip with a wary expression. "You can't take it back after saying it!" Her tone appeared to send him a harsh warning. When Hyun Joong shook his head and answered, "No," she placed her hands on her chest and heaved a sigh of relief. She was very touched when he told her that she made him upset talking about marrying another guy when she was still married to him. She would be very distress if he was to deny it now.

She anticipated the next sentence. "Hmm.." she said, encouraging him to say more. "47."

"You make me upset more than once."

"How is that possible!" Hwang Bo quickly denied it even before Hyun Joong finished his sentence.

Hyun Joong stuck out his thumb as he began his counting. "You always wear short skirts." He eyed the short dress she was wearing. She put back the short grey dress she was wearing before Kyu Jong and Hyung Joon arrived right after they wrapped up filming and left the Ssangchu couple's house. Even though Hwang Bo looked gorgeous and sexy in short skirt, he disliked it when she flaunted too much in short skirts. She should know how to reserve looking sexy for those who would really appreciate it. Hyun Joong's index finger appeared with his next sentence. "You are always with guys."

Hwang Bo angled her head and looked at him in disbelieved. Her jaws dropped and her eyes widened. She still could not comprehend why he disliked seeing her in short skirts and now he brought up her guy friends. "But Shillang, I'm working." That was the only explanation she could come up with to rebuff his accusations. "Explain to me why the fact that I'm working upset you so much?"

He turned silence in a sudden. He took his time to come up with the explanation she requested. The fact that she was working never bothered him. "A woman does need to work especially one like you.." he said, trying to sound considerate.

"One like me?" Hwang Bo asked in alarm. She could not guess what Hyun Joong meant with the phrase. Was it something good? Or something bad? She cupped her ears. She did not want to hear it anymore. Hwang Bo took two flights down the stairs in a single stride.

He saw Hwang Bo cupping her ears. He grinned when she started to run away from him. "Hhhm.." he replied softly. Then he ran after her, grabbing her arm and pulled it away. "One with a career," he said to her ear. He smiled and glanced towards Hwang Bo's direction. "One who does a lot of charity works."

Her smile was a shy one yet she felt proud when Hyun Joong said those words to her. She felt appreciated.

"But wear long skirts too when you work. Work with girls too." He was bothered by the fact the guys she worked with seemed to be smitten by her charm. His place in her heart could be threatened. Hyun Joong was very convinced he had a place in her heart. He added a third finger as he counted one more thing she did that upset him. "Today, you don't want to show me cute expression." He beamed when he saw her sulked with a pout. "Buin.." He glimpsed at her again. "There's something I want to tell you."

Hwang Bo was almost convinced Hyun Joong was trying to divert her attention from counting the number of stairs and hence losing the bet. "61. Hmm.." She fixed her eyes on stairs. They had not decided what the bet would be. The winner would decide later after winning.

Suddenly, Hyun Joong felt nervous. His heart beats went haywire abruptly. "Aishee.." He looked away, grabbing a handful of his hair and pulling it. He grimaced, looking like he was in pain.

"Why? What is that look for?" Hwang Bo asked, sounding concern. However, right after asking him that, she erupted in anger. "What else I did to make you upset?" She could not accept that Hyun Joong had so many complaints against her.

"No. That's not it."

She heaved another sigh of relief. "Then, what is it?" Hwang Bo asked, anticipating his answer.

"We've been married for almost 6 month now."

Hwang Bo did a quick mental calculation before agreeing with him. "Right.."

"Other than the time when I won the wrestling, when else do you think I'm most handsome?"

She was convinced now that Hyun Joong was really determined to make her lost the bet by asking her all this questions. "70. Hhmm.. Other time?" she asked. Her forehead wrinkled.

"Yes," he confirmed his question. The silence that followed after that displeased Hyun Joong. "Why do you take so long to answer? This doesn't need thinking. Just say it. There must be more than once, right? Buin?" Hyun Joong scolded her and tried to make a joke out of it. It was nerve wrecking to hear the silence when he anticipated Hwang Bo telling him something he wanted to hear most.

Hwang Bo halted her step. She turned around, looking up at Hyun Joong who had slowed down and was left a couple of steps behind her. She waited until he reached her side and gave him the look that indicated she could not think of any other moment he looked most handsome but that one time.

"Aishee.." Hyun Joong sighed again. He looked away with sadden expression. "Isn't there one thing that you like about me?" He felt stressed out when she did not like anything else about him expect winning the wrestling.

Of course there were things she liked about him. There were a lot of things she liked about him. She even felt it was absurd to like so many things about him. "I think, I like you most when you do things you don't like. Couple t-shirt. Cute expression." Absentmindedly, she started to imitate Hyun Joong. Her fingers came out one by one as she counted the things she liked about him. "Say sweet things. You hate doing all this, right?"

"Not if it's the right person," he told her with a look that asking her why would it be impossible for him to do these with her.

Hwang Bo looked shock when she saw his expression. She blushed. She quickly dismissed what he said and continued saying, "I like you most when you do things for me. The birthday performance. The paper cranes. When you stand by my side in the fake fights." She counted again. "All the little things. Only those. Nothing else."

"Arh.. You like me all the time. I do little things for you all the time." He bobbed his head as he twisted Hwang Bo's word to favour him. He insisted he was right when Hwang Bo grabbed on the handrail and dropped on the floor, laughing and denying him. Hyun Joong merely smirked, feeling good about himself. "Then Buin, the thing that I want to tell you is, aishee, I like you."

Hwang Bo laughed again. She thought it was funny how his sigh sounded naturally as part of his sentence. "Why is it so hard?" she asked in bewildered.

"Why are you laughing? This is serious thing, Buin."

"Do you want me to cry then?"

"No. I want you to say you like me too."

Hwang Bo buried her face in her palms. "How could you simply say serious thing.. You like me just like that? Shouldn't you assure me first?" she mumbled.

It was Hyun Joong's turn to fall on the ground. He flopped on the stairs with a loud sigh. "Buin, after all the things you said I did for you, how could you still ask me to assure you?" He slightly turned sideways when Hwang Bo moved to sit next to him. "I'm disappointed with you."

"Shillang, no," she said in soft tone. Hwang Bo grabbed onto his arm. "What I'm trying to say is.. Ya! Shillang! Why does it take you so long to tell me that?!" she yelled at him. "I'm almost going crazy having this liking for you but you never once tell me you like me. Until today. After 6 months? Aishee.. You disappointed me too, Shillang." Hwang Bo continued to scold Hyun Joong. "Ya! If you tell me earlier, I don't have to keep telling myself I'm being absurd liking you when you don't like me."

All the time when she was scolding him, Hyun Joong had a big grin pasted on his face. He pinched her cheeks to stop her babbling.

She did but she started to push his hands, scolding him for pinching too hard until her cheeks turned red.

"I'm extremely happy," Hyun Joong confessed. He looked behind him. Then he looked down the stairs. "I'm so happy until I don't know whether I should run upstairs or downstairs."

Hwang Bo gave him a few good smacks on his shoulder for the offline remark. She laughed. "Shillang, we better go downstairs. I've lost count again but I don't want to start from the fifth floor again. I'll just go with your count."

"Actually, I never count the stairs. Not even once. I just want to walk with you," he honestly admitted. "Let's just hold hands and walk," he suggested, giving her a smile. He put out his hand.

She would agree to that. She would agree to anything he said. He could win this bet or any other bets in the future. After all, did not she have just won something bigger that all the losses and wins put together? She just did.